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Neurodiversity Awareness/Appreciation

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Autism and ADHD In The News

Hi everyone! I am trying to blog every single day in November for NaBloPoMo... but I was having a hard time trying to think of something to write today. I have a cold and am not feeling too good. So I decided to try to start a new weekly feature in which I will scan the news for interesting stories about ADHD, autism, and other special needs. Here is what I found today.

Weirdest Story Of The Week - Imagine that you are the parent of a first grader with ADHD. You get a phone call from his school, saying that your child is in trouble and you need to come pick him up. When you arrive at the school, you find your child in handcuffs! That is what happened when Chrystal McCadden, a Michigan mother, went to pick up her son Caden. To me, it is weird enough that the school got the police involved for a seven-year-old who was having a tantrum. It is even weirder that the police officer found it necessary to handcuff the child. (He apparently told the little boy, "If you don't sit down, I'm going to handcuff you," and when the child didn't immediately sit down, the officer followed through with his threat.) But to make things as weird as possible, when Chrystal demanded that her child be unhandcuffed, she was told that the officer couldn't uncuff the little boy, because he didn't have a key for the handcuffs!

Story Most Likely To Give You The Munchies - While marijuana has recently become legal in some states, and medical marijuana legal in even more states, a new study suggests that it may be helpful in treating ADHD! The study involved thirty subjects with ADHD, whose symptoms had not been improved by common ADHD medications such as Adderall. All of them reported sleeping better, being able to concentrate better, and having more impulse control, while using medical marijuana. The reason may be that marijuana stabilizes the production of dopamine in ADHD brains.

Saddest And Most Frustrating Story Of The Week - This story involves an autistic child, although his autism isn't central to the story. This could happen to any child, and it is awful. Jeremy Mardis, age 6, had the misfortune of being a passenger in his dad's car, when Lousiana state marshals tried to serve the father with a warrant. Jeremy's father, Chris Few, tried to get away from the police, resulting in a high speed chase. When he came to a dead end, still being pursued by the marshals, Chris Few backed his car up, hitting police vehicles in the process. This is when the police apparently open-fired into the car. Little Jeremy was shot multiple times in the head and chest. He was killed.
The news still doesn't say what the warrant was for that was being served to Chris Few. (Few was also shot, and is still alive but in critical condition.) I wonder what sort of warrant would be so important that it would justify the shooting of a first grader?

Also Extremely Sad And Frustrating Story Of The Week - This story is about a 19-year-old autistic teenager who was raped by an acquaintance. The unnamed girl was walking with her therapy dog when a man she'd met once before stopped his car and told her to get in or he'd kill her and her dog. She and the dog got into the car. The man took her down the street to a porta-potty, raped her, and then dropped her off at a Wal-Mart, where she called the police to report it. He took her dog with him! The man was later arrested (this all happened about a year ago) but the dog was never found. Some people might think that is the least important part of the story. But I can't help relating to the girl. Her therapy dog was a brown-and-white chihuahua named Lily May. MY therapy dog is a brown and white chihuahua mix named Lily! If something happened to my dog, it would destroy me. To me, the worry about my dog would be more devastating than the rape. As far as I know, the dog was never found.

That is all I have for now. What do you think of these stories? Have you heard any interesting news stories lately?

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